A service of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Genealogy, a free-content encyclopedia created by its readers, people like you. The Encyclopedia of Genealogy is available to everyone, free of charge. Everyone can also contribute information, again free of charge.

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy serves as a compendium of genealogical tools and techniques. It provides reference information about everything in genealogy except people. Look to the Encyclopedia of Genealogy to provide explanations of how to look up your family tree, explanations of terms found in genealogy research, including obsolete medical and legal terms. It will describe locations where records may be found. It also will describe how to research Italian, German, Polish, French-Canadian, Jewish, Black, Indian and other ancestors. In short, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy will serve as your standard genealogy reference manual.

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy is created by genealogists like yourself. In fact, YOU can help by adding content: your own knowledge and expertise can help others. If you see anything in this encyclopedia that is incorrect, YOU can change it! If you see anything that is incomplete, YOU can add to it! If you note anything that is missing, YOU can add it! This encyclopedia will succeed because people like you contribute nuggets of information. When enough "nuggets" are added, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy will become a gold mine.

NOTE: This encyclopedia is not a place to find all the ancestors of John Doe or all the descendants of John and Mary Smith. The World Wide Web already has many online message boards and databases that perform that function well. Instead, the Encyclopedia of Genealogy serves as a clearinghouse of genealogy techniques: where to find records, how to organize the data found, what the terminology means, and how to plan your next research effort.